


Broken Ice

by aretia



Series: Holiday Gifts 2018 [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Ice Skating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 20:19:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17148455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aretia/pseuds/aretia
Summary: Allura takes Lotor on an ice skating date, which unexpectedly leads to Lotor showing her his vulnerable side.





	Broken Ice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Longpig](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Longpig/gifts).



“I don’t see why I need to wear all of this,” Lotor commented as Allura zipped up the purple jacket over several other layers of warm clothes, the collar covering his mouth. 

“You always complain when you get cold, so that’s why,” Allura replied matter-of-factly. 

“I feel more vulnerable when my movements are restricted like this,” Lotor said, shrugging his shoulders up and down in the puffy jacket.

“We’re not in a battle right now, Lotor. We’re safe here on Earth, and I want you to enjoy yourself,” Allura insisted. “That’s why I’m taking you ice skating!”

“What is ice skating?” Lotor asked. The Galra prince was well educated, but he could be adorably naïve about cultures that were unfamiliar to him.

“It’s an Earth winter tradition where they glide around on frozen water with these… shoes with blades on the bottom, as I understand it,” Allura tried to explain.

Lotor’s face lit up with curiosity at the mention of blades, and Allura giggled. “It’s not a combat rite or anything like that. But I think you’ll like it.” She stood on her tiptoes and reached up to put a beanie on top of his head. Unsatisfied when the tips of his ears refused to stay under the beanie, she placed a pair of black earmuffs over the hat. 

“You’re covering up my most attractive feature,” Lotor joked, pointing to the earmuffs.

“But every feature is your most attractive feature,” Allura said, and the marks on Lotor’s cheeks glowed as his face darkened with a blush. Still standing on her tiptoes, she hooked her finger in his collar to pull him down for a kiss. 

~

Allura sat on the bench next to Lotor, lacing up her ice skates. She glanced over to him, and saw him staring at her intently, watching the intricate movements of her fingers as if he was mesmerized. He hadn’t made any attempt to imitate her and tie his own. Once she was finished with hers, he glanced down at his own skates with a helpless expression, too proud to ask for help but too confused to do it himself. For all his knowledge of Galra technology, he still couldn’t fathom how to use certain Earth inventions, like shoelaces. 

“Oh, Lotor,” Allura sighed, barely suppressing a laugh. She slid off the bench and crouched down in front of him, and began to tie his shoelaces. 

Lotor glanced away in embarrassment. “Pardon me. I didn’t know how to…”

“You could always ask,” Allura quipped. “Don’t worry about it. I’m almost done.” She tied the bows on top of the boots, and then pushed herself to her feet. Then, she held out her hand to pull Lotor up. When he tried to stand up on the wobbly ice skates, he stumbled into her, leaning heavily against her chest. She blushed at the proximity of his face to hers, and couldn’t resist the opportunity to give his flustered face a kiss on the cheek. Then, she wrapped her arm around his waist and helped him walk to the rink.

“This is humiliating. I am a warrior, and my coordination is impeccable. Why is this so difficult?” Lotor muttered, mostly to himself. He huffed a sigh, and his breath condensed in a white cloud in front of his face.

“Nothing comes easily when you’re trying it for the first time,” Allura said.

“You don’t seem to be having any trouble,” Lotor remarked. “I don’t recall you saying that you had tried this before.”

“I might have done something similar as a child on Altea,” Allura said. Lotor’s expression instantly darkened at that, and Allura backtracked, realizing that she’d struck a nerve. Her voice softened as she said, “I know you didn’t have a chance to experience what I did on Altea. But Earth is similar to Altea, in some ways—it’s not a replacement, but it’s what we have right now.”

“Is that why you brought me here?” Lotor asked.

“Not necessarily. I just thought that it would be fun,” said Allura. “You’ve been on edge lately. I hoped that this would help you relax.”

“I appreciate the thought, Allura,” Lotor said as they stepped onto the crowded rink. “But I’m afraid that this isn’t what comes to my mind when I think of relaxing.” Lotor stared down at his feet, wobbling on the ice in the precarious skates. 

Allura leaned down enough to see Lotor’s face. His eyes were open wide, his pupils shrunken with fear. “Lotor, what’s wrong?” Allura asked him gently. 

“I’m afraid I’m going to fall in,” Lotor whispered, his voice trembling. 

“You won’t fall in. The ice is thick enough to be safe, that’s how they are able to have all these people skating here,” Allura reassured him. “If you’re not comfortable doing this, we can leave…”

“No. I already came this far. I have to try,” Lotor said, with that familiar fire of determination in his voice. Allura gave him an encouraging smile. 

“To start, just hold onto the railing. Keep your feet parallel to each other, and hold them still,” Allura said. Lotor was still shivering, more from trepidation than from the cold, but he managed to lock his feet into place. “Now, just pull yourself along the railing and let your feet glide.” Lotor did so, and his feet inched forward. “Does that feel okay?”

Lotor nodded, hushed with concentration. He kept moving hand over hand on the railing, slowly gliding forward, while Allura skated beside him. 

They were halfway around the rink when Allura said, “Do you want to try letting go of the railing now?” When Lotor looked startled, she said, “I’ll hold your hand.”

“If I fall, I don’t want to make you fall with me,” Lotor said.

“I won’t let you fall,” Allura replied.

Lotor reached out and took her hand, and then pushed out from the wall. He clung to her for dear life, wrapping his other hand around her arm as she skated around the rink.

They returned to the gate where they had entered the rink, and slid to a stop. “Do you want to keep going, or do you want to stop here?” Allura asked.

“I think I would like to stop, if you don’t mind,” Lotor said. He smiled gratefully when Allura stepped off the rink, and helped him totter over to the bench. Lotor sat down, relieved at getting to rest, while Allura darted off into another room.

When Allura returned a couple of minutes later carrying two cups of hot chocolate, she found that Lotor had already managed to kick off his skates without untying them, and put on his own shoes. “Didn’t want to wait for me, hmm?” Allura asked.

“They were uncomfortable,” Lotor said. “And surprisingly difficult to remove.”

“That’s why you’re supposed to untie them,” Allura laughed. She offered him a cup as she sat down beside them, and he took a sip of the sweet drink, humming with pleasure.

Allura placed her hand over his on the bench, rubbing it gently with her thumb. “You know, this seemed really difficult for you today,” Allura said. “I don’t mean that you were bad at ice skating. I just mean that the whole time, you seemed like you were forcing yourself. Did you have fun today?”

Lotor sighed. He downed the rest of his hot chocolate in one gulp, and then leaned against Allura’s side. She tucked her arm around his shoulders and pulled him close to her. 

“I have nightmares about the ground falling out from under me. I feel like that’s happened to me so many times, when I’ve lost everything I’ve loved. When I got on that ice, all I could think about was seeing it shatter underneath me.” Lotor’s voice cracked, like he would fall apart if she didn’t hold the pieces of him together. “It brought me back to the feeling that I’m going to lose you too.”

Allura threw both of her arms around him in a tight embrace. Lotor relaxed into her touch, resting his head on her shoulder. Lotor liked to be held and comforted, but he rarely initiated it, and it was even rarer that he opened up to her emotionally. She wanted to be gentle with him, to make sure that he wouldn’t retreat into himself and hide his feelings again. “Thank you for sharing that with me, Lotor,” she said. “I’m sorry. I never meant to upset you.” 

“Don’t worry about it, really,” Lotor said. He nuzzled his face against Allura’s neck. “When I saw how excited you were, and how much you smiled at me, it was easier to ignore the fear.”

“That’s good,” Allura said, stroking his hair. “You don’t have to worry about losing me, darling. You won’t ever lose me. I promise.”

“I want to believe you,” was Lotor’s soft, almost inaudible reply.

“I wish that I could remove all the doubts from your mind,” Allura said.

“You are. Slowly,” Lotor said. He pulled back slightly and looked up at her, and she was captivated when his eyes met hers. The tip of his nose and his cheeks were bitten with a darker purple from the cold, his lips graced with the faintest smile.

Allura kissed him on the nose. “Good. Now, let’s get you home and get you warmed up.”


End file.
